Obsidian Roses
by marapozsa
Summary: If there was anything before war, they don't remember it.


**Obsidian Roses**

a k a n t **h a e** - h i _m e_

**Authoress' Note & Disclaimer:** _Completely_ random title stolen from a forum I recently joined that absolutely owns. I might link to it in the future, or give you the link if you personal message me. This sentence collection is, of course, for final Fantasy XII and features all of the main characters, as well as a sprinkling of others here or there. Slight hinting at relationships, but overall it's G-rated. Read on, good fellow, and please review...for your own sake, I might add.

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001 - wood

Wood burns far too easily, which is why the Strahl is made of metal and Balthier hates wood.

002 - alone

Vaan cowers in a corner, waiting for someone who he knows will never show up.

003 - remembering

Penelo hands the Bhujerban merchant a silver coin, then bites into the sweet fruit in her hand: it tastes like sand and desert fever.

004 - unsure

In Giruvegan Fran hesitates at **Way Stone I**, but she's not the only one.

005 - stairs

Padding footsteps on the stairs in Penelo's Lowtown home tells her that Vaan's been having nightmares again.

006 - stall

_Just one more moment_, Balthier thinks, as he stares into Fran's eyes, not noticing they are screwed shut.

007 - sisters

Ashe knows that Fran and Penelo can never replace her real siblings, but even if they're nowhere close she'll still want to keep them by her side.

007 - secret

She puts a finger to her lips, pale like her wispy blonde locks, and decides to try and see if Basch won't be surprised when she pays him a surprise visit in Archades.

008 - puzzle

On one of his adventures, Balthier discovered that Fran was excellent with weapons, enigmas, and unsolvable riddles - considering she was one.

009 - trickery

"You tricked me," she murmurs, staring down at his dead face through a curtain of silvery tresses.

010 - definite

Basch knows the ring still means something to Ashe, even when she decides to discard it in her chambers for the rest of forever.

011 - infinite

Ashe takes out the ring the next day and brushes a finger over the text embossed on the inside; the temptation had been too great, but the ring still looks hazy underneath her black mourning veil.

012 - sarcasm

"You never lie," Balthier informs Vaan, who proceeds to wonder if Balthier was being sarcastic.

013 - family

Once upon a time, Balthier had a mother too.

014 - prism

Basch's new armor captures light and dims its ethereal existence, but that doesn't mean he'll stop wearing it, because - frankly - he can't (his life is worth more than his comfort, to be sure).

015 - division

She knows she can't count beyond twenty, but Migelo still has faith in her: why?

016 - equation

If Penelo and Vaan makes two, then Basch, Ashe, Balthier, Fran, and the two make more than six.

017 - ship

Vaan takes a sweeping gaze at the controls of his new aircraft, content to be captain only in his mind.

020 - battle

Before the Empire, there was still war - just, less of it.

021 - monotony

Thievery is always the same: sneak, snatch, and **run**.

022 - questions

_**Why**_, Fran berates herself, _must it always be Vaan who asks the silly questions?_

023 - mesh

Larsa never bothers wondering why Basch has resigned himself to be a nobody, but he has always known that the man has.

024 - pivotal

A twirl of her sword, accompanied by a muddled battle cry, and the fight has already begun, thanks to a warrior princess called Ashe.

025 - praise

Penelo offers 'Lamont' a smile in return for his Hi-Potion; and for once, Larsa doesn't bemoan his unneccessary preparations.

026 - terror

Terror is the name of the monster that follows war, and what lurks in every one of their hearts, even Balthier's.

027 - interest

At first, Vaan takes more interest in Ashe's skirt than at her face, but soon the attention shifts to her backside.

028 - slaughter

Reks wishes that he was immortal, but as Gabranth tells him (right before he dies), "No one is, and every death here will be called slaughter someday."

029 - gemstones

Balthier knows Fran needs no ornaments to make her a goddess among women.

030 - fruit

Eksir Berries, Ashe knows, are also called the 'blooms of the blessed;' she thinks that it's a misnomer.

031 - grace

It's not long before Penelo's left ten thousand footsteps in her wake, but what she loves about dancing is that Vaan is always that one step behind.

032 - time

In his coffee-hued eyes, Fran (who is old enough to be his grandmother many times over) sees a shadow of her former self: she doesn't like it, telling him so with her own eyes.

033 - walls

Ashe looks away from the confined structure of Raithwall's Tomb, afraid it'll become her own coffin.

034 - street

Loping around the Ozmone Plains, Vaan sees a chocobo path and wonders where the road might lead.

035 - hair

The scissors move mechanically, while Fran is avoiding the sight of her silvery mane spread over the bathroom floor.

036 - eyes

If she could only stop feeling the prickle of hair at the nape of her neck every time she strikes down a Steeling, Penelo would be perfectly satisfied

037 - piercing

It's just the fact that they're fighting for their very lives that disturbs Penelo, who never thought it'd be so easy.

038 - cloak

At the Outpost, Fran is forced to hide the Dawn Shard in an old cloak, which they end up stealing and using for a tarp in a desert where precipitation is a dream.

039 - fire

Cremation doesn't do Penelo's parents any good, so Vaan thinks that being buried in a coffin is better than being scattered to the world's edge.

040 - veil

Ashe has never had to wear more than two veils: one at her wedding, and one on the day she heard Rasler was dead.

041 - throne

Ascention to the throne reminds Ashelia of a sacrifice altar.

042 - blossoms

Fran will never understand why men enjoy comparing women to flowers, especially Al-Cid, because fighters like she and Ashe are more like ungainly weeds.

043 - storm

Vaan huddles under the blankets, curled up in a fetal position, waiting for the rain to end so he can empty out the buckets underneath the many leaks in the roof.

044 - pendant

Ashe revokes earlier decisions - many of them _ages_ old - when she resolves to keep the ring on a pendant 'round her neck, instead of on the finger where she's already replaced the old one with new.

045 - dull

Basch'd be damned if he could call his life tedious, but idle reprieve isn't all he had expected it to be.

046 - birth

No one sees Ffamran come to life except for the midwife, but only Balthier is present when he dies.

047 - calendar

Vaan should have known it was stupid for him to mark the days until Reks came back home, because when he did it wasn't worth celebrating.

048 - seeds

The dandelion clocks tell Filo it's only a matter of time and in Rabanastre a gloom settles over all - except Vaan doesn't know, not until he returns from a bloody battle on _Bahamut_ to find it's not the winds of change that have been blowing around the city: the wind, unastonishingly, has been carrying the acrid stench of death instead.

049 - clouds

Fran points out to Penelo an apparation in the sky; later, Penelo fibs and tells Ashe it's just would-be rain.

050 - demon

Pitchforks are a thing of the past, so instead of a pronged weapon, the demons lurking in their hearts use words.


End file.
